IRCTC scandal: CBI probes its own for 'leak'

RJD leader & former railway minister Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi have been charged in the case.

Prasad has been accused of conniving with IRCTC officials to grant sub-lease rights of two hotels in Puri and Ranchi to Sujata Hotel Pvt Ltd.

NEW DELHI: The Central Bureau of Investigation is probing the involvement of its officers in leaking an “unsigned” soft copy of the charge-sheet filed in the IRCTC hotel lease-for-land scandal to the “whistle-blower” in the case.

Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and former railway minister Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi have been charged in the case, which Vankatesh Kumar Sharma, a Bihar resident, claims to have first flagged.

The agency is investigating the role of unknown officers of the Economic Offence-II branch on charges of “misconduct” for providing an “unsigned soft copy” of the charge-sheet to Sharma. The agency summoned Sharma for questioning last month but he did not appear.

The CBI wants to know how Sharma managed to annex a true copy of the unsigned charge-sheet in his petition to the Supreme Court last September, seeking action against then CBI Director Alok Verma for allegedly interfering in the investigation of the IRCTC scam. Sharma accused Verma of “stopping” CBI sleuths from carrying out a targeted raid “for more than an hour,” which resulted in the loss of crucial evidence.

The agency initiated a preliminary enquiry on September 28, before Verma was ousted on charges of corruption and dereliction of duty.

Sharma was asked to attend the enquiry to answer questions and to appear before a police superintendent on March 11. However, Sharma cited medical conditions and sought more time, sources said. Sharma had twice moved the Supreme Court, which found little force in his contentions on legal grounds. The apex court gave Sharma the liberty to approach an appropriate forum.

Prasad has been accused of misusing his official position in 2004, when he was railway minister, and conniving with officials of the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation to grant sub-lease rights of two hotels in Puri and Ranchi to Sujata Hotel Pvt Ltd.

Probe agencies alleged that in lieu of this, 3.58 acres of prime land in Patna was transferred to a company owned by the family of PC Gupta, Prasad’s associate and an RJD parliamentarian, in February 2005 at a belowcircle rate.